Chapter 1 Black Snow Mountain

On the summit of Black Snow Mountain, the radiant light of the blazing sun scattered, the scorching afterglow still baking this desolate land.

The blessing of the God of Light did not descend, but shattered along with the bursting of this blazing sun, transforming into a rain of light that scattered and fell, only to be swallowed by the chilling cold after landing on the Black Snow Mountain peak…

Meng Xiao stared blankly at this scene.

The Light Passage suspended above the snow mountain was torn apart, fragmented and broken.

Only at this moment did he realize.

The ritual was over.

The descent of the God of Light… had failed.

“How is it possible… How is it possible!”

Zhen Yue’s handsome face was faintly losing control. He couldn’t comprehend all this. Just a moment ago, he was still bathed in the light cascading from Light City… in the next, the passage for the God's descent had shattered just like that?

He looked toward Black Snow Mountain.

The surging tide of darkness, under the burning light, had briefly shattered for just a moment.

But now, it had made a comeback.

[“There are very special rules here, restricting my descent.”]

The voice of the God of Light rippled slowly in his mind.

Meng Xiao regained his composure, and he asked in disbelief, “Lord God, with your power, can you not crush the rules of this place?”

[“……”]

Silence.

Only silence answered him.

And in such a moment, silence was the answer!

The God of Light could not forcibly descend.

The previous blazing light had not been able to completely incinerate and shatter the strange rules of Black Snow Mountain… In a place Meng Xiao couldn't even see, two supreme wills had already engaged in a confrontation.

And Light… had been defeated.

After a moment, the God of Light issued a second command.

[“Descend the mountain now and take a look for me… at the latter part of the Black River.”]

As the Light Passage completely shattered, the rich voice that had lingered in Meng Xiao’s mind also vanished.

Zhen Yue looked complex.

He was buffeted by the black snow, his cheeks growing cold, his heart even colder. He only felt that the world before him was exceptionally cold. The God of Light had actually failed in the rules duel on Black Snow Mountain… Just what kind of deity had forged this snow mountain?

Could the Underworld Lord of twenty years ago have been this powerful?

Meng Xiao’s bracelet emitted a faint fluorescent glow. At this moment, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck his mind… Perhaps, the strange rules of this Black Snow Mountain were forged by more than one deity!

That’s it!

It must be so… Otherwise, how could the God of Light have been defeated in a one-on-one battle?!

“Gu Shen… Gu Shen!”

Three to five seconds later, Meng Xiao regained his composure, and the first image that surfaced in his mind was Gu Shen!

That young man from the East Continent whom he had chased down the mountain, now nowhere to be found…

When the light shone brightly, he had stood on the summit, overlooking everything. As the holy light descended, Meng Xiao had taken in everything within a few miles, including Gu Shen, who was fleeing in a sorry state…

It was just that Meng Xiao was extremely conceited and overconfident.

As the holy light descended, he hadn't even made a move, merely watching with a sneer as Gu Shen fled down the mountain.

At that time, the Light Passage had already been constructed… It wouldn’t be long before the God would descend!

No matter how far Gu Shen fled, where could he go?

Even if he jumped into the Black River, the God of Light could reach out and retrieve him… Once the God descended, Gu Shen would be nothing more than an ant, his life and death not his own!

But now, he was paying the price for his “conceit”!

“Escaped to the latter part of the Black River?”

Meng Xiao’s expression was icy cold. He had a rough idea of Gu Shen’s destination.

Under the previous circumstances.

Gu Shen had no choice but to enter the river!

He glanced up. The afterglow of the blazing sun still echoed above the iron dome. Meng Xiao hurriedly moved, taking advantage of the remaining light to rush down the mountain… After a while, when the light completely dissipated, this boundless black snow would likely engulf the entire snow mountain.

And at that time, he would probably be directly targeted by the strange rules of this Black Snow Mountain because of his previous “Light Summoning Ritual”!

…

…

The other side of Black Snow Mountain was a sea.

Yes.

The word “sea” was the most appropriate to describe it.

At the place where the fourteen source energy boats were suspended, which was also the entrance to the entire disaster zone, one could see that the first half of the Doru River meandered and was quite spectacular. Although it was full of deathly stillness, the river surface was extremely wide, and there was land on both sides… But as long as one crossed the huge snow mountain that lay in the middle of the Black River, one would discover that the back of the snow mountain was completely connected to a vast black sea. Reaching the bottom of the mountain meant directly immersing oneself in the black sea.

As far as the eye could see, there wasn’t a single trace of “land” anywhere.

Even if one expanded one's mental power to the extreme.

One could only see the boundless black river water…

This was true despair.

A pillar of light reached the sky. At the moment when the God of Light’s power was at its peak, Gu Shen ran all the way, arriving at the foot of the mountain. He took a deep breath and looked at the Black River, which for other transcendents was nothing short of a “deadly poison”!

If he could have waited a little longer.

Perhaps Gu Shen would not have chosen to jump into the river.

But… being burned by the light at this moment, he had no choice.

Gu Shen did not hesitate and plunged straight into the latter part of the Black River…

“Glug.”

A bubble emerged from the Black River.

And then it returned to silence.

…

…

Gu Shen had sped along near this Black River for quite a long distance.

From a distance, the Doru River gave people a sense of gloom, strangeness, and an untouchable feeling of taboo.

In fact, these feelings were all correct.

But… Gu Shen was the only exception.

Jumping into the river, he did not feel cold, nor was his soul corroded.

On the contrary.

He actually felt a trace of… warmth.

It was as if he had returned “home.”

Looking up.

The Doru River was pitch black, with no sign of being burned or incinerated by the light!

Gu Shen breathed a long sigh of relief.

It seemed that the God of Light's blazing light could not penetrate into the Black River… After confirming this information, his extremely tense spirit finally relaxed a little.

The thing he was most worried about was the successful descent of the God of Light, who would then see through his identity as the Underworld Lord!

At that time, there would probably be a great chase across the nine heavens and ten lands!

And the East Continent’s Garden of the Fallen would be directly exposed… Everyone would know that the Underworld Lord of twenty years ago had long since died, the Underworld Fire Seed vacant, and the inheritor was just a twenty-year-old third-order transcendent.

A man is not guilty, but he is penalized for possessing the treasure.

Gu Shen was now known to the great powers of the Five Continents because he was an S-rank, a disciple of the Grand Judge, or the successor of Master Qianye's divination… These titles were indeed dazzling and heavy, but not dazzling and heavy enough.

True brilliance would arouse the ugliest jealousy in human nature.

True heaviness would make countless people rush forward, risking even being crushed to death, just to try to seize it.

Once the news of him “possessing the Fire Seed” was released.

Then what Gu Shen would attract would not be just so-called peer geniuses.

After calming his mind.

Gu Shen began to examine the “Doru River” before him. His source armor mask had already been completely closed, shielding him from the pollution of the Black River… Of course, this had no substantial effect.

The terrifying aspect of the Doru River was not the physical erosion of the river water.

This Black River would spiritually infect every transcendent who came into contact with the river water.

The “river poison” that made the transcendents participating in the subjugation mission turn pale at the mere mention would bring an indelible nightmare to every living being who stepped into this disaster zone!

These spiritual toxins would adhere to the spirit sea.

The lives of infected transcendents would wither in another form, just like Hong Zhong, who returned to Gubu from the [Old World]. No matter where they escaped, they would not be safe.

Even if they tried their best, they could not resist the arrival of the Black River Nightmare, and eventually they would wither and die in their nightmares.

The moment he immersed himself in the river water.

Gu Shen felt the influx of these “dark spirits”…

This great river indeed contained extremely terrifying toxins. The spiritual structure of these toxins was almost identical to that of the Golden穗花 (Jin Sui Hua, Golden Spike Flower) poison, but because the source matter of the great river was too abundant, its foundation was extremely strong.

No wonder the last subjugation mission alone cost Her Majesty a great deal of spirit to remove the toxins.

Spiritual toxins were easy to spread but difficult to suppress.

Being able to “purify” all the infected people in the entire disaster zone, ensuring that no infected person appeared in the Northern Continent… This was already an incredible miracle.

Gu Shen carefully felt these toxins pouring into his spirit sea.

Up, down, left, and right of the Black River, the wisps of toxins that poured into Gu Shen's spirit sea were the same as when they invaded other transcendents.

They gathered and then burst out with the spirit of “killing the host”!

Unfortunately, they encountered Gu Shen.

These toxins were originally the creations of the “Underworld Lord.” How could they have any influence on the Underworld Lord?

The fire between Gu Shen's eyebrows flashed once or twice.

The toxins in his spirit sea vanished in an instant.

But the offensive did not dissipate. Wave after wave, the spiritual toxins from the Black River continued to pour into Gu Shen's mind, repeating the previous process.

Trying to kill, and then being killed.

These toxins did not have their own spiritual will. They were born from the “creation” of the previous Underworld Lord and integrated into every drop of water in the Black River. Their only purpose was to kill the host and spread the tide of poison.

The ultimate goal…

Was actually to create a “Pure Land.”

This was also why the devils called the Doru River the “Styx.”

Gu Shen briefly imagined in his mind what the scene would be like if that Underworld Lord was still alive, cultivating this disaster zone for twenty years.

Those transcendents who stepped into this place and were infected by the Styx would set off an unprecedented tide of poison, and all the “infected” people… would be selected by the Underworld Lord’s “Pure Land.” They would die, and they would also be reborn.

They would wither in the real world.

Then… in the Pure Land, they would stand up once again!

“It seems you were planning a big conspiracy…”

Gu Shen stretched out his finger and gently pinched the wisp of pale Underworld Fire between his eyebrows. He knew that the Underworld Lord was dead. This conversation would never be heard by the other party, but he still couldn't help but murmur softly, talking to the deceased of twenty years ago: “Even if you achieved the God Seat, you were still a ‘mortal,’ and you must have felt the warmth and kindness in this world. Why did you have to make such a crazy plan?”

Gu Shen was also saying these words to Ruler.

It was just that the devil did not respond.

He paused slightly and said calmly: “It's a pity that although I inherited the ‘Underworld Fire’ from you… I don't agree with your will.”